Order of the Black

'Order of the Black' is the eighth studio album from guitar titan Zakk Wylde and his band, Black Label Society - released locally through Riot! Entertainment.

In the two decades from when Ozzy Osbourne hired him away from his job at a New Jersey gas station to become the singer's new guitarist, Zakk has established himself as a six-string icon known and revered the world over. He has won nearly every guitar award imaginable, graced countless guitar-centric magazine covers and is a major influence to a new battalion of rock gun-slingers. Writing and recording with Ozzy led to multi-platinum success, inspiring him to create the now legendary Black Label Society in 1998.

In the ten years plus since, the group has turned the notion of what a rock band should be upside down by inspiring legions of fans (known as Berserkers) all over the world to follow the mantra: Strength, Determination, Merciless, Forever (S.D.M.F. for short). Certainly, Zakk and his Berserkers have established a heavy metal institution true to the vision of uncompromising, unfiltered and unrestrained rock 'n' roll.

However, not only is 'Order of the Black' a master class in cacophonic riffing and thunderous heavy metal (check such cuts as "Crazy Horse", "Overlord", "Parade of the Dead", and "Black Sunday", etc.), there is a much softer side too. For Zakk has a passion for heartfelt balladry, and on piano-led tracks like "Darkest Days" and "Time Waits for No One" he displays some of his most personal, heartfelt lyrics to date. But for anyone worried Zakk has gone soft in his old age, he sees things a bit differently.

"It's just whatever the songs are. I hate bands who are like 'This is our heaviest yet', or, 'this is the fastest guitar playing I've ever done.' My favourite artists - Zeppelin, Sabbath, Elton John - the whole thing is songs. 'Back in Black' wasn't the heaviest or most vulgar AC/DC album, it has the best songs."